Education Atlas

College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

University of New Mexico-Main Campus

Albuquerque, NM · Public · Bachelor-granting · 17,244 undergrads · 95% admitted

Do students finish?
55% complete

A large share of students do not finish; the cost is the same whether or not you graduate.

What does it cost?
$21,259/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$85,036 over four years if you finish on time.

What former students go on to earn

The middle 50% of students who received federal aid, measured 10 years after they entered (an earlier entering class — not a guarantee, and not limited to those who graduated). Earnings vary enormously by field of study.

$44,792 median, 10 yrs after entry
25th pct $23,933 median $44,792 75th pct $68,866

64% earn more than a typical high-school graduate (the dashed line above, $28,000 — a fixed, somewhat dated federal benchmark) ten years on.

Your major matters more than your school

The school-wide figure above blends every major together — but pay varies enormously by program. Pick a degree level (and search your major) to compare like-for-like.

Read these on their own terms. Program pay is measured 1 year after completing the program (early career, graduates only) — not the same as the school-wide number above, which is 10 years after a student first enrolled. Don't compare a program figure to the school figure; use the programs to compare majors to each other.

39 Bachelor's programs · $18,295 to $71,723 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt
Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing.Bachelor's $71,723 $19,250
Chemical Engineering.Bachelor's $69,148 $19,775
Computer and Information Sciences, General.Bachelor's $66,115 $22,774
Mechanical Engineering.Bachelor's $60,481 $17,764
Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering.Bachelor's $56,927 $25,000
Civil Engineering.Bachelor's $55,370 $18,721
Computer Engineering.Bachelor's $54,348
Allied Health Diagnostic, Intervention, and Treatment Professions.Bachelor's $49,483 $17,839
Dental Support Services and Allied Professions.Bachelor's $48,521 $20,000
Clinical/Medical Laboratory Science/Research and Allied Professions.Bachelor's $44,649 $17,883
Business Administration, Management and Operations.Bachelor's $37,077 $17,960
Geography and Cartography.Bachelor's $36,819
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Levels and Methods.Bachelor's $33,445 $20,500
Special Education and Teaching.Bachelor's $33,226 $22,250
Journalism.Bachelor's $32,991 $14,000
Architecture.Bachelor's $32,262
Rhetoric and Composition/Writing Studies.Bachelor's $31,260 $13,984
Criminal Justice and Corrections.Bachelor's $31,091 $14,000
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Subject Areas.Bachelor's $30,884 $14,000
Sociology.Bachelor's $30,251 $21,500
Political Science and Government.Bachelor's $29,067 $17,653
Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies and Humanities.Bachelor's $27,990 $19,428
Romance Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics.Bachelor's $27,770 $14,000
Economics.Bachelor's $27,677 $18,450
Psychology, General.Bachelor's $26,770 $19,684
Family and Consumer Sciences/Human Sciences, General.Bachelor's $25,598 $19,233
Biology, General.Bachelor's $25,544 $17,251
Area Studies.Bachelor's $24,975 $17,500
Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology.Bachelor's $24,542 $18,975
Mathematics.Bachelor's $24,432 $19,594
English Language and Literature, General.Bachelor's $24,310 $15,000
Film/Video and Photographic Arts.Bachelor's $22,860 $15,800
International/Globalization Studies.Bachelor's $22,207 $17,245
Anthropology.Bachelor's $21,972 $19,600
Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft.Bachelor's $20,416 $20,750
Philosophy.Bachelor's $20,078 $24,165
History.Bachelor's $19,879 $19,200
Linguistic, Comparative, and Related Language Studies and Services.Bachelor's $19,169
Fine and Studio Arts.Bachelor's $18,295 $20,323

The Dept. of Education omits programs with too few graduates (to protect privacy), so not every major appears. Pay is a median for federally-aided graduates. Full program detail on the official Scorecard.

Typical federal loan debt
$13,698
31% of one year's typical earnings here

This counts federal student loans only — not private loans, Parent PLUS loans, or family savings, so the true cost of borrowing is usually higher. And because students who drop out borrow less, a school where many students don't finish can show a deceptively low debt figure — read it next to the completion rate above.

What these numbers are — and are not

Every figure here is an institution-wide median from the U.S. Dept. of Education College Scorecard. It is not a prediction of what you would earn or owe — a computer-science and a fine-arts graduate of the same school can earn wildly different amounts, and your field of study matters more than your school. It is not a figure for any one program, not proof the school caused the outcome (selective schools admit students who would earn more anyway), and not a "best college" ranking. Earnings and debt cover federally-aided students.

→ The number that actually answers "worth it" is earnings by major — see the by-major breakdown above (71 programs at this school).

Also available: structured data (JSON-LD) · plain text · JSON. Source: U.S. Dept. of Education College Scorecard (2026-06-10 release). · school website